Fade to black: EP 7 - Genocide
by maxrpg
Summary: SG-1 and the Atlantis teams are tested to their limits, they discover what they're willing to do and just how far they're willing to go to save someone they love. Decisions will be made, lines will be crossed, and Hell hath no fury...
1. Discoveries

**A/N**: I want to thank everyone who's been following my 'Fade to Black' story series over the last couple of months and for the very nice reviews and private messages you've been sending me, I'm extremely grateful to you all.

The following is the first story in a series of 3 or 4 that detail specific events that lead up to a very dramatic and action packed ending, featuring all our favourite characters from all three original Stargate series, introducing a new enemy, making new discoveries and travelling further across the universe than we've ever been before.

Hopefully these will be good for the new year.

I guess I need to put this here:

**Warning**: Character death and violence.

**The Journey – Part 1**

**- Genocide -**

* * *

**A taste of things to come...**

They came out of nowhere, sure, in all our years travelling through the Stargate we've encountered enemies before, the Goa'uld, Ori, Wraith, Replicators and Verdain, they were all powerful enemies who wanted to enslave or kill us but we always fought and defeated them, but this new enemy was like nothing we'd ever seen or could even imagine.

From the moment they appeared they began their rein of terror and destruction, within days hundreds of worlds were devastated, cities lay in ruins and billions of lives were lost, we tried to communicate and reason with them and find out why they were doing this, but they wouldn't listen, they didn't care about us, we were nothing to them.

Of course we didn't just sit back and do nothing, thousands of ships from hundreds of races in countless galaxies joined the fight against this new enemy, but they took out our ships like they weren't even there, even the power of those we called Ancients wasn't enough to stop them, they were unimaginably evil and as old as the universe itself, it's like they were motivated by a single thought, kill.

The fight, if you can call it that, it was pretty one sided, lasted for 8 days and in that short amount of time, everything we worked and fought so hard for all these years was wiped out, everything we loved and all that we knew was gone, those of us that survived now hide in a galaxy once teeming with life and fear for our lives knowing that they will inevitably find us.

We put together a database of all our combined knowledge and history and uploaded it in to this probe built from what little resources we had left and sent it out in to space, in the hope that one day in will be found and our species will live again, and to ensure the people that once populated the universe will never be forgotten.

My name is Dr Daniel Jackson, last known survivor of the Human race.

* * *

**Four months ago**

**Location**: Atlantis, Pegasus galaxy.

Sheppard and his team are in the briefing room with Woolsey and Dr Zelenka.

A few hours ago an off world team were exploring a planet designated M6H-592, they explored on foot in a two mile radius around the gate but found no signs of life or previous civilisations, they did detect a faint intermittent energy signal but couldn't locate the source, when they returned to Atlantis they informed Woolsey that they found no signs of life and told him about the energy signature but that they believed their scanner was just malfunctioning, Woolsey asked Zelenka to check it out.

When Zelenka examined the scanner he found it to be in perfect working order, on analysing the data he discovered that it did detect an energy signature, even though it was intermittent the data did show that the signature was quite powerful, he informed Woolsey who then called a meeting with Sheppard and his team to discuss his findings.

"So what are we talking about here, a ZPM?" asks Sheppard.

"No it doesn't match the output signature of a ZedPM." replies McKay, holding a tablet and going over Zelenka's data.

"It appears to be more powerful than a ZPM." says Zelenka, fiddling with his glasses.

"Is it something to get excited about?." asks Sheppard.

"Er..yes absolutely. It's definitely a power source." replies Zelenka.

"Let's just wait and see shall we." says McKay, not sounding confident with Zelenka's analysis as usual.

"Recommendations?." asks Woolsey.

McKay tilts down his tablet, "Well, from the data we have I'd say it's pretty far away from the gate. I say we take a Jumper and check it out." he says.

Woolsey looks at Sheppard, "Couldn't hurt to take a look." says Sheppard.

"Granted." says Woolsey, closing a folder on the table in front of him as everyone stands up and heads out of the briefing room.

* * *

**Location**: M6H-592

The symbols on the gate on M6H-592 light up and a vortex emerges and forms a stable wormhole, a few seconds later the Jumper flies through the gate and heads over the landscape, it's a typical planet filled with a dense forest and mountain ranges.

Sheppard activates the Jumper's display, "Alright McKay, where are we going?." he asks.

"Here." says McKay, checking the data on his tablet and pointing to a location North-West of their position on the display, "It's about 30 miles out." he adds.

"Doesn't look like it's inhabited." says Ronan, looking out of the window.

They continue flying towards the energy signature for almost an hour, they haven't see signs of a civilization on the surface, all they see is trees.

Sheppard glances over his shoulder, "So are you guys up for the game Friday night?." he asks.

"I'm in." says Ronan.

"How about you Teyla?." asks Sheppard.

"I will be spending the evening with my son." replies Teyla with a smile.

"Suit yourself." says Sheppard, "What about you McKay, you coming?." he asks.

"What?." snaps McKay.

"Are you coming to the game on Friday night?." asks Sheppard.

"What game?." asks McKay.

"The poker game." says Sheppard.

"That's a mugs game." says McKay.

"Listen you don't have to be embarrassed, if you don't know how to play, that's fine." says Sheppard, winding him up.

"I know how to play poker, alright." says McKay.

"Sure." says Ronan, sarcastically.

"It's a stupid game for mugs who want to lose all their money. It's all about math anyway, I'd probably take you for everything you've got." says McKay.

"Really." says Sheppard.

"Yes, really." replies McKay.

"Then why don't you prove it." says Sheppard.

"...oh I see, I see what you're doing. You're just egging me on and trying to get me to play aren't you, well it's not going to work buddy, I have better more important things to do than play stupid card games." sasy McKay.

"I'm not doing..." says Sheppard, who's interrupted by Teyla, "John" she says, pointing out of the window.

As the Jumper flies over a mountain top they look down into the forest below and see a large ship about a mile across and crashed in the forest, the front of the ship is buried in dirt, behind the ship is a long trail of dirt and broken trees, the ship is covered in burn marks and it's hull is severely damaged, it's clearly been in some sort of battle and crashed on the surface of the planet.

"Wohw." says McKay, stunned at the sight.

Sheppard flies the Jumper over and around the ship as everyone looks out of the window, "Are you picking up anything there McKay?." he asks.

McKay gets on his tablet, "Not getting any life signs or noticeable activity, the disturbance of the surface looks fairly recent, I'd say the ships been here for a couple of months tops." he says.

"Look at all the blast damage, it must have been one hell of a fight." says Sheppard.

"Yeah, and lost." says Ronan.

"Is this the source of the energy reading?." asks Teyla, leaning towards McKay.

"Yes this is..." says McKay, then his tablet displays something he finds concerning, "Oh no." he says.

"What?." asks Ronan.

"I thought the structure of the ship looked familiar." says McKay.

"Well what is it McKay?." asks Sheppard, getting inpatient.

"That's a Furling ship." says McKay with concern.

"Are you certain?." asks Teyla.

"Yes. Not just any Furling ship, that's Venori's, it's the one that saved us from the Verdain." says McKay.

Everyone in the Jumper remains briefly silent while they think and take in the news.

"Sheppard." says Ronan.

"I know." says Sheppard, then he turns the controls to the left away from the ship.

"Wait what, what are you doing?." asks McKay.

"I'm turning around, we're heading back." says Sheppard.

"What?!, No, no no...we should land, we...we need to check this out." says McKay.

"I have orders Rodney." says Sheppard.

McKay is confused, "Orders, what orders?." he asks.

"I have orders, if we find anything related to the Verdain we have to report it to General O'Neill immediately." explains Sheppard.

He takes the Jumper back to the gate, McKay isn't happy that they're heading back without even taking a look or that Sheppard had secret orders he didn't know about, when they get to the gate they go through back to Atlantis, once there Sheppard informs Woolsey of what they found.

* * *

**Location**: Stargate Command, Earth.

Daniel is casually walking down the hallway holding a note pad, he's spent the last couple of weeks on board the Alteran ship, the Lantis and going through the ships database translating as much information as he can, he came across some information that was scientific in nature and as that's not his field of expertise he's looking for Carter so she can take a look at it for him.

He walks around the corner and heads in to O'Neill's office, "Hey Jack, have you seen...OH." he says, then turns around quickly facing the other way, "Sorry, sorry." he says.

"Daniel." says O'Neill in shock, as he stands up straight from leaning over the corner of his desk.

"Oh Daniel, hi." says Carter, sliding off the desk and standing up straight when O'Neill gets up.

Carter straightens her hair and tucks in her shirt and then composes herself.

O'Neill shuffles around behind his desk, "*Cough*..Daniel...err...what's up?." asks O'Neill, blushing.

Daniel turns around and sees them both grinning and trying to pretend like nothing happened, "I was just looking for Sam." he says.

"Me, really. What do you need?." asks Carter.

"I found some data in the Lantis database and I wondered if you'd take a look." says Daniel, holding out a memory drive.

"Sure." says Carter, taking the drive and smiling, "I'll look at it right now." she says and she heads for her lab.

When Carter leaves, Daniel and O'Neill just stand in silence at opposite sides of the desk looking awkwardly at each other.

"Anything else?." asks O'Neill.

"No, no...that's..that's it." replies Daniel.

"Okay then." says O'Neill.

"Okay." says Daniel, he turns and starts walking out, then turns back around when he reaches the door, "You may want to err..." he says, pointing and wiggling his finger.

"Huh?." says O'Neill, he then looks down and sees his belt isn't fastened correctly, "Oh..right." he says.

Daniel walks out smiling and shaking his head.

The gate at the SGC activates and O'Neill is called to the control room, it's Atlantis, Woolsey has dialled in to inform O'Neill of what they found on M6H-592, it's not the news he wanted to hear, he's ordered M6H-592 off limits for the time being and no one is to be allowed anywhere near that ship until he's spoken with the President, but no doubt the hardest thing he now has to do is break the news to Alisana.


	2. Life Signs

It's been a few hours since Woolsey informed O'Neill about the Furling ship and since then he's been in conference with the President, world leaders and the IOA to discuss what to do about it, after taking a break to consider their options they've come back and all agree that they should go and take a look at the ship and salvage as much as they can, if they can get their hands on Furling weapons then it will help significantly in the defence of Earth.

O'Neill will follow the orders of his commander in chief but he isn't bothered about weapons or salvage, as he walks slowly through the halls of the SGC with his head down and a look of dread on his face, the only thing on his mind is how he's going to explain this to his new recruit.

He stops walking when he reaches a door and turns to face it, as he reaches out his arm he pauses briefly before taking a deep breath and then knocking on the door, when he hears a voice inviting him in he opens the door and heads inside.

"Hi Jack." says Alisana, she looks very happy carrying piles of clothes from her wardrobe and packing them in to boxes.

"Wow, you've been busy huh." says O'Neill, closing the door behind him.

Alisana laughs, "Yeah. Don't worry it's not all coming with me, I'm giving a lot of it to Vala." she says.

"I see." replies O'Neill, he then walks over by her bed, "Listen, can you come over here for a sec." he asks.

Alisana goes over and she and O'Neill sit on the end of the bed, "What's up?." she says, "You haven't changed your mind about me moving in have you?." she asks.

"No, of course not." says O'Neill.

"Good." says Alisana with a smile.

They just sit there for several seconds in silence, O'Neill tries to speak but he's having a hard time getting it out, "Jack what is it?." asks Alisana, she can tell something is wrong.

"Colonel Sheppard and his team found a Furling ship while exploring a planet." says O'Neill.

"Really?, are they back." says Alisana with excitement.

O'Neill stands up and then faces her and kneels in front of her, "The ship is in pretty bad shape, they think it was in a battle and it crashed on the planet several months ago." he says.

"Well...that can't be right, if they were here I'd know about it, wouldn't I?. I mean they would have come to see me. Right?" asks Alisana.

"They weren't coming here...they were leaving." says O'Neill.

Alisana shakes her head, "Leaving?, that's not possible, I mean the only Furling ship that would've been leaving several months ago would have been..." she says, then stops talking when she realises.

O'Neill holds her hand, "I'm sorry." he says.

Alisana's heart races and her breathing increases, "Venori..." she says, "No." she cries as she stands up and runs to her chest of drawers, she picks up the beacon crystal given to her by Venori so she could contact her people when she needed them, she squeezes it tightly in her hands and concentrates.

"Alisana" says O'Neill as he stands up.

"It's not working, why isn't it working." shouts Alisana, shaking the crystal in her hands trying to activate it.

She gets very upset and starts crying, O'Neill swiftly walks over and holds her, "Venori" sobs Alisana, she drops the crystal on the floor and puts her arms around O'Neill and wailing uncontrollably.

After a few minutes they separate their comforting hold on each other, Alisana wipes her eyes and face, "I need to see it...take me to it." she says.

O'Neill nods, "Alright." he says.

* * *

A couple of hours later SG-1 have suited up and gated to Atlantis, once there they joined Sheppard and his team on a Jumper and gated to M6H-592, they've been flying towards the ship for almost and hour and are very close, everyone has remained pretty quiet during the trip because no one quite knows what to say in this situation.

"Okay we're close." says McKay.

Alisana moves from the back of the Jumper and stands at the front looking out of the window as they approach.

Sheppard looks over his shoulder at her, "Are you sure you want to see this?." he asks, Alisana doesn't say anything she just briefly looks at him and then continues looking out of the window.

As the Jumper comes over the mountain top they see the ship in the forest below, Alisana lightly gasps when she sees it, she was hoping it wasn't Venori's ship but now that she sees it she realises it is, Carter stands up next to her and rubs her back as Sheppard flies the Jumper over the area.

"Take us down, Colonel." says O'Neill.

"Yes Sir." replies Sheppard, he finds a clearing a few hundred meters from the ship and lands the Jumper, they grab their gear and as the rear hatch opens they step outside.

* * *

The forest around them is a mixture of standing, broken and fallen trees with piles of kicked up dirt rocks and debris from the ship spread over the ground, they pass through a line of trees and see the crashed ship in front of them as they stand and look, a few meters to their right is a large hole in the side of the hull and seeing this as a possible point of entry they head towards it.

The hole is about four feet off the ground so Teal'c and Ronan help the others by giving them a leg up and then get themselves up, the hole leads them to an outer corridor of the ship and apart from the occasional shaft of light coming through cracks in the hull the inside of the ship is dark and full of twisted, broken and burnt metal, power cables hang all around and there's dust and debris all over the floors, the ship was in a battle and crashed hard on the surface so it's condition is no surprise to them.

"Alright McKay, you're up." says Sheppard.

"Uh?" sounds McKay.

"The signal...where is it coming from." says Sheppard.

"Oh right. Err.." says McKay as he swings his table strap around and checks the readings, he lifts his finger up and then turns back and forth briefly, "That way, towards the rear of the ship." he says, pointing down the corridor.

"We should also look around, they could still be survivors." says Daniel.

"Carter are you picking up anything?." asks O'Neill.

Carter is holding an Ancient life signs detector, "No Sir. But the scanners range is limited and its a pretty big ship." she says.

"I need to go to the bridge." says Alisana.

"I suggest we split up, I'm not sure how stable the ship is so the faster we search the better." says Carter.

"Okay lets split up. Sheppard take McKay and see if you can find out what that energy thing is, the rest of you spread out and see if you can find any survivors, I'll go with Alisana. Radio in if you find anything." says O'Neill.

* * *

Almost an hour has passed since they started their search of the ship and so far they've come up empty handed, Ronan and Teyla think they found the engine room and Carter will be checking it out later, Sheppard and McKay are still making their way towards the energy signal and are getting closer, Alisana and O'Neill found the bridge but no one is there.

The bridge is located in the front part of the ship which is embedded in the dirt, the windows are broken and dirt has penetrated the ship and covering the main consoles at the front.

O'Neill comes back in to the bridge after stepping out in to the corridor to use his radio to get updates, "They haven't found anything yet." he says, looking at Alisana kneeling by the captains chair.

Alisana picks up something off the floor and stands up holding it, it's a torn piece of white and gold cloth.

"What do you have there?." says O'Neill.

"I think it's a piece of Venori's gown, she was definitely here. Who would do this to them." says Alisana.

"I don't know...we'll find out." replies O'Neill.

At the rear of the ship, Sheppard and McKay have entered a large room, they think its some type of docking bay because it extends almost the full width of the ship and has walkways and railings but a large void is in the middle of the room, as they walk further in to the room they come to a large barrel shaped device with lights on the front.

"This is it, this is the source of the signal." says McKay.

"Great...what is it?." asks Sheppard.

"Well lets see it could be a toaster or a microwave maybe...I DON'T KNOW, I haven't examined it yet." moans McKay.

"So examine it already. I'm going to take a look in those rooms over there." says Sheppard as he sees a few rooms to the left of them.

* * *

In another part of the ship, Mitchell and Teal'c have been searching rooms on a deck they believe to be crew quarters, they eventually come to a large sealed door at the end of the corridor and attempt to open it, it's difficult so they find a piece of metal to use as a lever to pry the doors apart and then using their strength they each grab a side and pull them open.

As the doors open Mitchell immediately turns away from the door and places his hand over his nose, "Wooh what the hell is that smell." he says.

"Colonel Mitchell." says Teal'c after shining his torch in to the room.

They look in to the room and see a pile of decaying bodies, they've been there for a while and the smell is horrendous, they look at each other looking very disturbed by the sight and then Mitchell steps away from the room.

"General, come in." says Mitchell over the radio.

O'Neill hears the call and steps off the bridge to get a better reception, "Go ahead." he replies.

"I think we've found the crew." says Mitchell.

"Alive?." asks O'Neill.

"I'm sorry Sir." replies Mitchell.

"I found some too." says Sheppard, as he explored the rooms he found several bodies laying in them.

Suddenly they all hear the muffled sound of gun fire echoing through the ship.

"What's going on, who's firing?" asks Mitchell over the radio.

In the middle of the ship where, Vala, Daniel and Carter were looking around, they picked up some life signs near by and went to investigate but before they could report it they were attacked.

"We need help here." shouts Daniel down the radio as he hides in a doorway with Carter and Vala, firing on their attacker.

Everyone immediately reacts and start running through the ship.

"Where are you?" asks O'Neill.

"Two levels down." says Carter.

They continue to fire their P90's down the dark corridor as pulses of light are shot at them, they can't see who's firing at them but can make out its location when the corridor is illuminated from the weapons fire, the attacking fire intensifies and Vala is hit by a pulse of light and is knocked back to the floor.

"Vala" shouts Daniel.

Carter who was leaning out of the doorway firing on their attacker stops firing and goes over to Vala and Daniel, "We have to move." she says, they each grab a shoulder strap on Vala's vest and quickly drag her unconscious body down the corridor, they have to stop to return fire when their attacker gets closer.

"Get her out of here." shouts Carter, "I'll cover you." she says.

"Here." says Daniel, passing her some ammo clips and then he grabs Vala's vest straps and continues to drag her away, he eventually make it around a tight corner and takes cover, but a few moments later the gun fire stops, he listens briefly.

"Sam" shouts Daniel, perched with his back to the wall at the corner of the corridor, "Sam" he says as he looks around the side.

He's about to go back to Carter's location when he hears running from behind him, "Daniel" shouts O'Neill as they start to approach, they gather at the side of Daniel and Vala, Ronan stands at the edge of the corridor looking out.

"Where's Sam?" asks O'Neill.

"Down there." replies Daniel, catching his breath and pointing down the corridor.

O'Neill, Mitchell, Sheppard, Teal'c and Ronan slowly make their way down the corridor with their guns drawn and checking each room they pass as the go, they reach the point where Carter was last standing but she isn't there and bullets and her P90 lay on the floor.

"Carter, come in." whispers O'Neill over the radio.

For a few moments they hear nothing...then a gut wrenching scream.

Naturally they waste no time in heading towards the scream but as they get to a corner in the corridor then skid to a stop when they see Carter fly past them through the air, she crashes in to the wall and falls to the ground, O'Neill goes over to her while the others turn the corner and immediately open fire.

Standing in the corridor is a large Wraith, its very heavy built and about 7 foot tall, this is no ordinary Wraith and it takes repeated heavy fire power from all of their weapons and several minutes to take it down, but eventually it does go down.

"What the hell is this thing?" asks Mitchell.

"Wraith" says Sheppard.

"Its not like any Wraith I've ever seen." says Ronan.

O'Neill is over by the wall kneeling beside Carter and holding her with her head on his knee, she badly beaten up and is barely conscious.

"J..Jack." says Carter.

"I'm here Sam, it's me, you're going to be alright." says O'Neill.

Carter slowly raises her hand and presses it against O'Neill's cheek, "I love you Jack." she says, slightly smiling.

"I love you too. We'll get you out of here you'll be fine." replies O'Neill, "Sam..." he says.

Carters eyes slowly close and her head slightly turns to the side and her hand goes limp and falls away from his face.

"Sam?." says O'Neill softly, "Sam" he says gently shaking her, "Teal'c" he shouts loudly.

"O'Neill." says Teal'c as he quickly runs over.

"Help me...help me get her out of here now, need to get her back to Atlantis." says O'Neill in a very shaky worried voice.


	3. Tipping Point

SG-1 and Sheppard's team rushed out of the ship carrying Vala and Carter and once inside the Jumper they headed straight for the gate and made it back to Atlantis, medical teams were waiting for them and when they arrived in the Jumper bay they were immediately taken to infirmary.

It turns out that Vala was hit with a blast from a Wraith stun gun and after spending a short time in the infirmary she woke up, apart from a few bruises and minor scrapes from her fall she was fine and was given the all clear, Carter however wasn't so lucky, the Wraith had fed on her but was interrupted when the others came down the corridor and when he violently threw her against the wall she suffered extensive injuries and massive internal bleeding.

The Wraith they encountered on the ship was taken down but it wasn't dead, needing answers Woolsey ordered a team to return to M6H-592 and bring back the Wraith, it is now in a holding cell in Atlantis.

SG-1 are in the infirmary standing around Carter's bed, she keeps moving in and out of consciousness and is covered in bandages, tubes and hooked in to all kinds of medical devices, Daniel and Vala stand at the foot of her bed holding each other, Teal'c is standing on her left and trying to look brave but it's difficult even for him, O'Neill is on her right and sitting in a chair holding her bandaged hand with only the tips of her fingers sticking out.

"Jennifer." says Daniel when Dr Keller comes over.

"How is she?." asks O'Neill.

Keller doesn't look confident, "We attempted to repair her injuries as best we could, she has a punctured lung and we managed to stop most of the internal bleeding...but there's only so much we can do." she says.

"What are you saying?." asks Vala.

"There's nothing more we can do for her...I'm sorry." replies Keller.

Alisana starts crying and runs out of the room unable to cope with the news, not that the others can cope with it, as Dr Keller slowly walks away to give them privacy, they all just look at Carter in disbelief that this is happening and they're about to lose one of the most important people in their lives.

A few minutes later the heart monitor that was regularly beeping and hooked up to Carter suddenly turns to a continuous beep.

"Doc" shouts O'Neill.

Keller rushes back over and checks her vitals, sadly Carter's breathing and heart have stopped, Keller looks up at O'Neill and lightly shakes her head, "I'm sorry...she's gone." she says.

"No...no Sam...Sam." says O'Neill holding and rubbing her hand and tears running down his face, "God Sam no." he cries.

Daniel and Vala burst in to tears and Teal'c collapses to the floor on his knees crying, O'Neill leans over and across Carter holding her in his arms, "Sam" he cries uncontrollably.

When Alisana ran out of the room she sat with her back to the wall by the side of the infirmary door and crying, when she heard the heart monitor beeping she knew Carter was gone and began crying even more with her head in her knees, a few minutes later she lifts her head and sniffles, she gets to her feet and wipes her face with the sleeves of her jacket and then swiftly walks away down the hall.

* * *

In the holding cell the Wraith prisoner has woken up after regaining its strength and healing its wounds, it now stands in the cell with its back turned while two S.O's and Ronan stand guard, Alisana comes around the corner and enters the room and stands next to the cell.

"Hey, you shouldn't be in here." says Ronan as he walks over to her and lightly grabs her arm.

"Get off me." says Alisana, shaking her arm to get Ronan off her, "What did you do to those people?." she shouts at the Wraith.

She gets no reply so walks around the side of the cell, "Answer me." she shouts.

"What people?" replies the Wraith.

"The people on that ship you were on...are you the ones who shot it down?" says Alisana.

"Yes." says the Wraith.

"Why?" asks Alisana, the Wraith remains silent again and she gets frustrated, "Tell me" she shouts.

* * *

The Wraith explains that they were in the middle of a culling on a nearby planet when the Furling ship dropped out of hyperspace close to the planet, the Furlings stopped when they detected life signs disappearing and came to investigate, the Furlings were unfamiliar with the Wraith and have never encountered them before but seeing what they were doing they ordered the Wraith to stop and return the people to the surface.

The Wraith refused and a fire fight ensued between the Furling and Hive ship, the Furlings were winning until three other hive ships appeared from hyperspace behind them and joined the fight, the Furling ships power source was already nearly depleted from their recent fight with the Verdain and as a result their weapons and shields were draining rapidly, realising they were losing the fight they attempted to flee but the Wraith pursued them and continued to attack them relentlessly and eventually they were successful and the Furling ship crashed on M6H-592.

But the Wraith didn't leave it at that, they took several darts down to the surface and made their way in to the wreckage, most of the crew had survived the impact but were thrown around and injured during the fight and eventual crash and were in no condition to fight back when the Wraith boarded the ship.

The Wraith fed upon the crew and soon realised something was different, the energy transferred from the Furling's during the feeding process was like nothing they'd ever felt before and it made the Wraith feel strong, feeding on a single Furling was like feeding on 100 humans and it felt good, more Wraith descended to the ship and fed upon the entire crew.

Realising they had discovered a much richer food source than Humans they wanted more, they spent the next few months trying to access the ships systems and they eventually discovered the location of the Furling home world, but it was too far away, if they tried to reach it by hive ship it would take millions of years so they needed another way, that's when they found a shuttle in the ships bay.

The shuttle had the same engines as the main ship which would allow them to travel to the Furling home world in just a matter of days, they managed to repair it and it was launched with hundreds of Wraith on board, the Wraith now standing in the cell of Atlantis stayed behind to collect as much information from the Furling database as possible in preparation for their return.

* * *

"You're going after the Furlings?" asks a shocked Alisana.

"Humans sustain us for a short period of time, but the Furlings will sustain us forever. When they reach their world they will devour it and they will be unstoppable." says the Wraith.

Alisana starts walking away.

The Wraith turns around to face the door, "How's your companion?." he asks.

Alisana stops walking but says nothing.

"I do hope she is okay. I would love to finish feeding on her." says the Wraith, then starts laughing.

Alisana turns and runs towards the Wraith, some how she runs straight through the cells shield and panels, she punches the Wraith sending him flying in to the cell panels behind.

"Hey...what the." says Ronan, "Lower the shield, open it up." he says the the S.O's by the door.

The cell door slides open and Ronan runs inside with his gun pointed at the Wraith, "How'd you do that?." he asks, Alisana turns and walks out and Ronan backs out of the cell with her and the S.O's lock the cell again.

"They will all die" shouts the Wraith, struggling to get to his feet.

Suddenly the Wraith starts to glow and screams in pain as it quickly disintegrates in to tiny particles of dust and disappears.

"We'll see about that." says Alisana to herself as she exits the room and walks down the hall with a very angry look on her face.

Ronan and the S.O's look at each other in shock not knowing what just happened.

* * *

It's been nearly an hour since the sad passing of Samantha Carter and SG-1 remain in the infirmary unable to accept that it's really happening and they're just not ready to leave her side, but the President and IOA have dialled Atlantis and requested to speak to O'Neill, he reluctantly lets go of Carter's hand and looking drained and distant he makes his way to the control room.

"Woolsey?." says O'Neill.

"They asked to speak with you General" says Woolsey in a light tone and directs O'Neill to the video screen.

O'Neill buttons his shirt in an unconscious attempt to make himself appear fine.

"General, how are things going there?." asks the President.

"We err...we lost Colonel Carter, she...she's dead Sir." says O'Neill.

A few moments of silence go by, "I'm sorry Jack, I know how much she meant to you." says the President.

"Did you complete your mission?." asks Harry Lombard (New head of the IOA)

"What?" snaps O'Neill.

"Did you salvage the weapons and technology from the ship?." says Harry.

O'Neill closes his eyes and shakes his head briefly, "Excuse me...didn't you hear what I just said." he says.

"Yes, and I'm sorry, you have our condolences but you need to complete the mission." says Harry.

"Jack, what he's trying to say is..." says the President.

"A member of my team has just DIED, and all you're concerned about is did we get the weapons!" shouts O'Neill, "Are you f*cking kidding me." he says.

"We know how you feel General, but you must complete the mission." says Li Ying (Female member of the IOA)

"No you don't...you have no idea how I feel." replies O'Neill angrily.

"General, that's enough." says the President.

O'Neill isn't in the mood, he's just lost a member of his team, a friend, his partner and no one appears to care, all they seem to be thinking about is getting their hands on advanced technology, his emotions take over and he's had enough.

"You know what...I'm through...I'm through with everything...I quit." says O'Neill.

"Complete your mission General." orders Harry.

O'Neill walks away, "Do it yourself" he shouts.

The President doesn't agree with the way the IOA are treating O'Neill but in this case he's powerless to interfere because the other world leaders have placed them in command of this mission and if he interferes it will be bad for future relations between them.

"Mr Woolsey, by direct command of the IOA I'm ordering you to place General O'Neill and his team in custody and escort them through the gate back to Earth immediately." orders Harry.

"Colonel Carter has just died, we're all taking it pretty hard...for God sakes give the man time to grieve." says Woolsey.

"Do it..or place yourself in custody with them." says Harry, "I expect them back at the SGC in half an hour" he adds, then the communication ends and the Stargate deactivates.

Woolsey doesn't want to do it, he's been a by-the-book kind of guy in the past but this time he doesn't agree with the IOA's decision and Carter was his friend too, but he knows that if he doesn't follow through they'll just relieve him of command and replace him with someone that will.

"Colonel Sheppard." says Woolsey as he turns and looks at him.

"Forget it" replies Sheppard.

"We have orders to send them back to Earth in half an hour." says Woolsey.

"Well I'm not doing it...and I'm pretty sure no one else here will follow that order" replies Sheppard.

* * *

Alisana is walking through the halls heading back towards the infirmary when all of a sudden everyone walking by suddenly freeze like time has stopped, she looks around puzzled and waves her hand in front of the face of some of the people, then jumps around when she hears a voice behind her.

An Ancient appears in the hall, "Hello Alisana" she says.

"Who are you?" asks Alisana.

"Forgive me, my name is Oma" she says.

"We haven't seen your people for a while, we were beginning to think you were dead" says Alisana.

"We are still recovering and it will take some time." says Oma.

"Okay, so what do you want?" asks Alisana.

Oma steps a little closer to her, "I was sent by the others to tell you that we know what you're thinking of doing" she says.

"Are you here to help me?" asks Alisana.

"No, I can't." says Oma.

"Then stay out of my way." says Alisana and she walks passed Oma.

"There are rules, Alisana." shouts Oma.

Alisana stops, turns around and walks back to Oma, "I don't care about your rules" she says.

"Your people are part of our alliance, and the alliance has rules as per our arrangement, as a member of the people of our alliance you are required to obey those rules." says Oma.

Alisana waves her hands around briefly, "What alliance?. The Wraith killed the people on board that ship and they're going after my home world to kill the rest of them as we speak, where the hell was the alliance when the Wraith was feeding on them huh...where?" she shouts.

"It doesn't work like that." says Oma.

"What...are you listening to yourself right now. The whole point of being in an alliance is that you work together and HELP each other." shouts Alisana.

"We can't allow you to do this." says Oma, a little aggressively.

"Then stop me. Go ahead..." says Alisana, raising her arms in the air, "Stop me, strike me down or whatever it is you do." she says.

Oma shakes her head and looks to the floor in frustration.

"Didn't think so." says Alisana and she starts walking off again.

"You can't interfere." shouts Oma.

Alisana comes back again and steps right up close to Oma, "Watch me." she says assertively, then she once again walks off.

Oma disappears and the people in the halls start moving again.


	4. Catching up

Alisana has made it back to the infirmary and stands in the doorway, looking inside she sees O'Neill still sitting by the bed and holding Carter's hand, the others are sitting uncomfortably in chairs at the other side of the room, they all understandably look lost and heartbroken.

She walks in to the infirmary and over to the others, "Ali, there you are" says Vala, standing and giving her a hug, "Where have you been?." she asks.

"Just walking around" says Alisana.

She gives Daniel, Teal'c and Mitchell a comforting hug as well, then walks over and holds on to the foot of Carter's bed, O'Neill is still holding her hand and is leaned over with his head on the bed, Alisana walks around behind him and places her hand on his back.

"Jack" she says.

O'Neill sits up and glances around, "Hi" he says, rubbing the bottom of his eyes.

"She looks so peaceful" says Alisana.

"Yeah she does." says O'Neill, the odd tear starts rolling down his face again.

Alisana standing behind him leans over and places her arms over his shoulders and around his neck, placing her head next to his while she hugs him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without her." says O'Neill.

"It'll be okay, Jack." says Alisana, closing her eyes and hugging him tightly.

After a few minutes of hugging, Alisana kisses him on the cheek and lets go of him, wiping the tears from her face she slowly walks away.

O'Neill turns as she walks away, he knows that this can't be easy for her either, not just because of Carter but also the fact they just discovered her people and Venori, a mother like figure to Alisana were killed.

O'Neill reaches out and grabs her hand, "Where are you going?" he asks.

"I just need some air" replies Alisana with a gentle smile.

"You know I'm here for you if you need to talk." says O'Neill.

"I know" says Alisana.

O'Neill gently lets go of her hand and she heads for the door, when she reaches it she stops and looks back at the others for a moment, she hugged them all and genuinely meant it, but there was another reason why she needed to hug O'Neill, while they were hugging she used the opportunity to retrieve the Ancient knowledge that was buried in his mind because she needs it, "Goodbye" she whispers with sadness after taking one last look at her friends and walking out.

* * *

The half hour given to Woolsey by the IOA to get SG-1 back through the gate to Earth is almost up and with no one willing to follow the orders he's not sure what action to take, he's asked Colonel Sheppard to go and explain the situation to them, on his way down to the infirmary Sheppard bumps in to Ronan who fills him in on what happened in the cells.

Ronan and Sheppard come running in to the infirmary and over to SG-1.

"Sorry, I don't mean to disturb you guys..but have any of you seen Alisana?." asks Sheppard.

"She was here a few minutes ago." asks Daniel.

O'Neill stands up and walks to the edge of the bed, "What's going on Colonel?" he asks.

"We think she killed the Wraith in the cells." says Sheppard.

"What?, why would you think that." asks Daniel.

"She came down to the cells and interrogated the Wraith, then she attacked it and it just disappeared in to thin air..I saw it with my own eyes." says Ronan.

"That does not sound like Alisana" says Teal'c.

O'Neill walks closer to them, "Alright, why would she kill the Wraith." he says.

"It provoked her, it made a comment about Colonel Carter and said the Wraith were heading for the Furling home world" says Ronan.

"Aww Alisana...damn it" says O'Neill and he runs out of the infirmary with the others following behind.

* * *

While they were in the infirmary, Alisana had made her way through the city and entered the control room, once there she walked over to a console and started searching through star maps, Woolsey when she just walked in and started messing with the console and he tried finding out what she was doing but she wouldn't answer him, he went over and tried to pull her away from the console but with a wave of her hand she created some type of field around herself preventing anyone from getting close.

Woolsey looks at the S.O's, "Stop her." he says.

"Miss, step away from the console" says an S.O as he approaches, "Step away" he says, readying his weapon.

Alisana looks at him and with a wave of her hand the gun the S.O was holding disappears.

"Security team to the control room immediately" says Woolsey over Atlantis' coms.

Alisana finishes what she was doing with the console and then walks away and down the main staircase to the gate level, she stops and stands a few meters away from the Stargate and just stares at it, several armed S.O's then enter the gate level and kneel with their weapons pointed at her.

"Alisana, whatever you're doing stop it. Please don't make me give the order to shoot you." says Woolsey from the balcony above.

"Wohw wohw...lower your weapons." shouts O'Neill as they all come running in.

"Put them down" orders Sheppard, "That's an order." he shouts.

The S.O's lower their weapons and O'Neill approaches cautiously.

"General I..." says Woolsey, who's interrupted by O'Neill, "Just give me a minute" he says.

"Alisana...what's going on?" asks O'Neill.

She doesn't move and just continues staring at the gate, "I have to save them, Jack" she says.

"From the Wraith?" asks O'Neill.

"If they reach my world they'll kill them all. I have to stop them and bring her back." replies Alisana.

O'Neill steps in front of her, places his hand under her chin and lifts up her head, "Venori is gone, you can't bring her back." he says.

"I know...I'm talking about Sam." says Alisana.

"What?" says O'Neill in shock, "What...what do you mean...you can bring her back?" he asks.

"There's a way, but I have to stop the Wraith first." says Alisana.

* * *

Just then the Stargate activates and Alisana and O'Neill move out of the way just as the vortex emerges, it's the IOA, they've dialled from Earth to find out what's going on, Woolsey goes over to the communication screen.

"Mr Woolsey, why haven't you sent SG-1 back as ordered?." asks Harry.

"We're having err...technical problems here." replies Woolsey.

"Technical problems?." asks Harry.

"Yes." says Woolsey, then he looks at McKay and gives him eye signals.

McKay stands up when he finally figures out that Woolsey wants him to confirm his blatant lie, "Oh right, yes...the err dialling crystals aren't working at the moment, we're running a diagnostic to find the problem." he says.

Harry doesn't look convinced, "I'll dial back in one hour, that's how long you have to fix it." he says.

"Very well." says Woolsey.

Communications end and the gate shuts down.

Woolsey goes back over to the balcony, "I think I bought you some time General." he says.

"Thanks. What are you going to do?." says O'Neill looking at Alisana.

"I can't follow them on a ship so I have to use the Stargate, hopefully I'll catch up to them before they reach my home world, but I don't have a lot of time." replies Alisana.

O'Neill walks back over to the others, "Sgt, your weapon" he says to an S.O who hands him his P90 and ammo.

"Jack, what's going on?" asks Daniel.

"She said we can save Sam." says O'Neill.

"By going after the Wraith, you saw how strong that thing was...that's suicide." says Vala.

"Maybe...but if there's a chance of saving Sam, I'm taking it." says O'Neill.

There's no time to suit up, if they stand any chance of catching up to the Wraith they have to leave straight away, so O'Neill, Teal'c, Ronan, Mitchell and Sheppard grab weapons and ammo from the S.O's and walk over to Alisana as they stuff ammo in to their pockets and guns in to their belts.

"What are you doing Jack?" asks Alisana.

"Going with you" says O'Neill.

"This isn't your fight, it's my responsibility not yours." says Alisana.

"Listen, whether there's a chance to save Sam or not, there's no way I'm letting you go up against them things by yourself. Sam would want us to help you. Now do whatever you're going to do and let's go." says O'Neill.

Alisana stands in front of the Stargate and concentrates slowly raising her arms in to the air, the gate immediately activates and forms a connection with the vortex, the same way the Asgard are able to do it, "Okay, ready." she says.

"General, what do I tell the IOA when they dial in?" shouts Woolsey from the balcony.

"I don't care. Say something insulting on my behalf." says O'Neill.

Woolsey smiles, "Good luck." he says.

"Tell Oma I'm sorry." shouts Alisana looking at Daniel just before she steps through the gate.

"What?" shouts Daniel.

O'Neill, Mitchell, Ronan, Sheppard and Teal'c follow her behind with their guns held out in front of them and they step through the gate.

Due to the Wraith using a Furling ship which has very powerful engines they can't follow them in a ship because they have none fast enough to catch up, so they have to use the Stargates and hope they can some how get ahead of the Wraith and stop them before they reach the Furling home world.


	5. Stepping Stones

They arrive through the Stargate on a planet in daylight, it doesn't look familiar to any of them, around them they see short grass, flowers and a mixture of densely packed and scattered trees, a dirt path lays ahead of them and off in to the distance they see an old stone village which is crumbled and partly in ruins, it's obviously been abandoned for a very long time and there's no immediate signs of life on the planet.

"This does not appear to be a ship." says Teal'c.

"No it's not." replies Alisana.

"Is that a Milky Way gate?" asks Sheppard, looking at the Stargate behind them.

"Yes, come on we need to go." says Alisana.

They all start swiftly walking down the path towards the village and everyone is curious as to what's going on and why they're there.

"Where are we and what are we doing here?" asks O'Neill.

"This planet use to be an Alteran settlement, they did a lot of research here on the radiation emitted by it's twin Suns. We're here because I need something they left behind." says Alisana.

"I'm sorry did you say radiation?" asks Mitchell.

"It's not harmful." says Alisana.

As they continue walking towards the village they remain mostly quiet and not much talking is going on, O'Neill will help Alisana no matter what and if that means going up against these new stronger Wraith then so be it, but his mind is mainly focussed on just one thing.

O'Neill moves up and walks closely beside Alisana, "Alisana, I don't want to make this all about Sam, but you said you could save her?" he says.

"Yes, we will" replies Alisana.

"How?" asks O'Neill.

Alisana goes quiet for a moment and looks away, "Its complicated, but we'll save her I promise." she says, looking back at O'Neill with a slight smile.

* * *

They arrive at the village and walk inside through a broken stone archway, the buildings inside are all crumbled and collapsed, overgrown vegetation covers the ground and snakes around the rocks and walls around them, only one building near the middle of the village remains standing, its a square stone building about 10 foot high and 30 feet across with a flat roof and has a rusted metal door at the front, they make their way to it.

Alisana steps up to and feels around the door, "Its in here" she says.

"Ronan" says Sheppard, indicating to him to help open the door.

As Alisana steps away, Ronan and Teal'c walk up to the door, standing face to face with each other they use their upper body strength and bang their shoulders against the rusty door in an attempt to open it.

"Come on put your backs in to it." shouts O'Neill.

Ronan stops for a moment, "Do you want to come over here and do this?" he says, in his usual cheery manner.

"Err...No, you're doing fine." replies O'Neill.

Alisana finds their interactions very amusing.

They continue to bang against the door and small pieces of stone break and fall around the frame and it takes them several attempts but eventually the door gives way and opens and they stumble inside, they cough briefly and wave their hands in front of their faces wafting away the dust that filled the building when the air rushed inside.

"Good job" says O'Neill with praise, tapping them both on the shoulder as he enters.

Mitchell and Sheppard stand guard outside, Ronan and Teal'c remain standing at the door and O'Neill and Alisana enter the building.

The inside has tables and shelves all around, lots of old looking gadgets including telescopic and lab equipment and other chemistry apparatus, countless books line the shelves and wooden crates are scattered around the corners of the walls and they're all covered in dust and cobwebs, they start looking around.

"So what are we looking for?" asks O'Neill, picking up and looking at glass bottles.

"I'll know it when I see it." replies Alisana.

O'Neill turns a bottle upside-down, "Argh..Jesus." he shouts.

Alisana looks over to him with concern, "Spider" says O'Neill.

"It was a big spider" says O'Neill, Alisana smirks and shakes her head.

After looking for a while she can't seem to find it so she picks up a tool off the floor and starts opening crates, they're mostly full of straw protecting books and equipment, she eventually finds what she's looking for.

"Got it." says Alisana, turning to O'Neill and holding a metal ring shaped object.

"We came all this way for a donut?." says O'Neill, jokingly, with a hint of seriousness.

In fairness to O'Neill it is roughly the same size and shape as a donut.

"Come on Jack" says Alisana, "We don't have a lot of time" she shouts, running out of the building.

"Teal'c" says O'Neill, handing him the dusty bottle as he exits and runs after her.

* * *

After briefly looking at the bottle in confusion, Teal'c throws it in to the building and joins the others as they run back towards the Stargate, once they get to it Alisana passes the object to Mitchell and goes over to the DHD.

Mitchell looks at O'Neill as if to say "What the heck is this", O'Neill just shrugs his shoulders as he has no clue.

Alisana doesn't dial an address, she just puts her hand on the dialling pad and closes her eyes and concentrates, after a few moments the center of the DHD begins to glow and gradually gets brighter and brighter, she's using her abilities to increase the output of the power crystal, a few seconds later the Stargate activates, she opens her eyes and goes back over to Mitchell taking the object from him.

"Okay let's go" she says.

Everyone runs up the small stone stairs and step through the gate to their next destination.

* * *

Back on Atlantis, the IOA dialled in again for an update and despite Woolsey and McKay once again trying to convince them there was a problem with the gate, the IOA didn't buy it and were preparing to send a team through to escort SG-1 back to Earth, thankfully McKay managed to come up with another excuse at the last minute and told them they had fixed the dialling console but a bug in the system was preventing them from lowering the gate shield, the IOA weren't sure if he was telling the truth or not and so decided to instead send the Daedalus to Atlantis, it's currently on its route.

Daniel is outside on the balcony looking over the city, he's been there for quite some time just thinking about Sam and his fellow team members who are currently off world.

"Daniel" says Oma from behind him.

"Oma" says Daniel after turning around and seeing her standing there.

"It is good to see you." says Oma.

Daniel looks a little confused, "Yeah...shouldn't you be fighting Anubis right now." he says.

"He has been dealt with. Daniel, I'm here about Sam." says Oma.

"Sam..can you bring her back?" asks Daniel.

"No, even our power isn't capable of such an action, we can heal, but we can not bring back the dead after such a long period of time." replies Oma.

"But Alisana said she could...she...she wouldn't lie to us" says Daniel.

"The others do not approve of her intentions, what she is thinking of doing...what she will do goes against everything our alliance was built on, we have rules and she is choosing to disobey them." says Oma.

"Maybe you should start doing the same, you spent most of your life seeking ascension to a higher plane of existence, what's the point in having all that power and all that knowledge if you choose not to use it. The rules prevent you from being what you wanted to be, they're stupid and meaningless." asks Daniel.

"The rules are their for a good reason Daniel." says Oma.

"Meaning what?" asks Daniel.

"Everything comes at a price." says Oma.

Daniel just looks at her with a breath of frustration, he knows he's right but the Ancients never listen, "Yeah leave, that's all you do anyway." he shouts when Oma disappears.

* * *

At the far edge of the Pegasus galaxy a Stargate activates and Alisana and the others come through, they exit the gate on to a grey dusty surface, the sky is black and the stars can be seen clearly, no clouds and no trees, the surface is completely grey and covered in rocks and twinkles of light are seen on the ground all around.

"Where are we?" asks O'Neill.

"On a moon. Don't worry I've created a bubble of air around us, but it won't last, we need to be quick." replies Alisana.

Alisana walks a few meters ahead of the others then turns around, "We need to find a crystal" she says.

"Why?" asks Mitchell.

"All these crystals scattered around are from meteors that impacted the surface, they were used by the Alterans as power crystals because they can store massive amounts of energy. We need to find one that's both red and yellow in colour, it'll look like marble." replies Alisana.

They still have no idea what's going on but Alisana appears to know what she's doing so they spread out and start looking for the crystal, they find lots of red ones and lots of yellow ones but none of both red and yellow, after several minutes of picking up and discarding crystals they begin to think they'll never find the one they need.

"Anyone find it?" asks Alisana.

Everyone responds with a "No.".

"We can not possibly search the whole Moon" says Teal'c.

"You said the crystals came from fallen meteors, right?" asks Sheppard.

"Yeah." replies Alisana.

Sheppard walks over to a large rock, "Well a lot of these rocks look like they've impacted the surface so they're probably meteors, there not broken so maybe there's crystals inside them." he says.

O'Neill goes over by the rock, "Watch out." he says to Sheppard, then he fires his P90 at the rock which breaks and crumbles to pieces revealing crystals in its core.

"Okay, lets shoot some rocks." says O'Neill.

O'Neill, Ronan, Mitchell and Teal'c form a circle standing back to back, Alisana squats down in the middle of them with her fingers in her ears, they all start shooting at the large rocks around them and shattering them all to pieces, they stop shooting and spread out to search the rubble, they don't immediately find anything but then Teal'c believes he's located the crystal they need.

"Over here" shouts Teal'c.

"That's it, that's what we need" says Alisana, "Thanks Teal'c" she says, kissing him on the cheek.

"Okay so we have the crystal, now what?" asks O'Neill.

Alisana slides the crystal in to the metal ring she found on the previous planet, dotted lights appear around the edge of the ring, then she waves her hand in a circle several times around the crystal which then begins to glow, the yellow colouring of the crystal starts moving inside it like smoke and the crystal begins to glow brightly and everyone looks it in with amazement.

"Now we go hunting" says Alisana.

They walk back over to the gate and Alisana holds out the crystal device, energy like lightning shoots out of the crystal and surround the Stargate, the gate appears to absorb the energy and then it activates, once again they go through it to their next destination.


	6. Fate

Its a dark and eerily quiet room, lights start appearing through the darkness accompanied by the sound of vibrating metal, one by one and seconds apart the lights illuminate around the ring of the Stargate, as the last light glows a shimmering blue vortex whooshes out and is pulled back in to form an event horizon.

The light of the vortex partially illuminates the room, a few seconds pass and then Teal'c, Mitchell, Sheppard, Ronan, O'Neill and Alisana emerged from the gate, but instead of walking through as they have done so many times before, they come through the vortex with force as if pushed and roll and land rather hard on the floor, the gate deactivates and the room goes dark once again, a loud sound is heard briefly like steam through a water pipe.

"Everyone alright?" asks Sheppard, as they pick themselves and each other up off the floor.

Luckily their violent exit through the gate wasn't too hard and they didn't suffer any injuries.

"Where are we?" asks Mitchell, looking around the room with curiosity.

As they stand and look around the metal structured room they see a number of doors and corridors, twisted staircases with consoles beneath them and a railing surrounding the level above, they hear a loud beeping sound and then stumble slightly forward when the floor appears to shift beneath their feet for a moment.

O'Neill turns around and faces the Stargate, "Destiny" he says with surprise.

The lights turn on and illuminate the room and corridors of the ship, "Yep" says Alisana, now standing at one of the consoles by the twisted stairs which she used to turn on the lights, she then turns and starts running out of the room through the door behind her.

"Hey wait up." shouts Mitchell and he and the others run after her.

"Where are you going?" asks O'Neill.

"To the bridge." replies Alisana.

They run quite quickly through the corridors and eventually make it to the bridge, Alisana activates the door, the cog style ring in the middle of the door turns a number of times and then the door splits and slides open, revealing the bridge.

Once inside, Alisana walks around and down the stairs to the control consoles, she turns on the lights and activates the systems and then kneels down and starts removing a panel from beneath the console.

"I need to interface the crystal with the ships core, it'll take a short while." says Alisana.

* * *

With nothing to do until Alisana finishes interfacing the crystal, O'Neill starts thinking like a General as he knows they're on Destiny and he has people on board and last he heard they were placing themselves in stasis, he decides to go and check on them, "You guys wait here, I'll be right back" he says.

"Where are you going?" asks Mitchell.

"To check on something" replies O'Neill walking out.

"I'll come with you" says Mitchell.

They both walk through the corridors of the ship towards the stasis rooms, being cautious and checking around corners and through open doors as they go, its very quiet with only the humming sound of the ships engines vibrating through the walls, they reach a stasis room and open the door, stepping inside they see members of the crew still in their pods, tiny jets of slow moving coolant smoke rise from beneath each pod.

O'Neill steps up to one of them and reaches out his arm, wiping off the icy glaze covering the glass front of the pod he slowly reveals the face of Colonel Young.

"How long have they been in here?" asks Mitchell.

"Almost a year." replies O'Neill, "Give me a hand, check these other pods will you." he says.

"What are we looking for?" asks Mitchell.

"Eli" says O'Neill.

When the crew put themselves in to stasis they discovered there wasn't enough pods available to accommodate the entire crew and Eli elected to stay behind, they haven't had any communication from Destiny since then and the fate of Eli is unknown.

They both search the pods one by one wiping off the ice and seeing who's inside, when they finish with one room they move on to the next and when they reach the last room and check the final pod, it's clear that Eli isn't in any of them, disappointed they decide to head out and check other area of the ship, the food hall is clear, the auxiliary control room is clear, chair room is clear and crew quarters are clear.

After checking a lot of areas of the ship and finding nothing they head for the observation deck but again find nothing.

"Wow, that is one heck of a view." says Mitchell, standing with O'Neill on the observation deck and looking out in to space and the outside of the ship.

"Yeah it is." says O'Neill.

"So what now?" asks Mitchell.

"Lets get back to the others." says O'Neill.

* * *

Alisana finished interfacing the crystal and dropped the ship out of hyperspace, Mitchell and O'Neill returned to the bridge and even though they didn't manage to find Eli they also didn't find any bodies which they're taking that as a good sign that he could have survived some how, O'Neill wanted to revive the crew but Alisana explained that it would take up too much power and so they decided not to revive them.

Gating to Destiny has many to get them slightly ahead of the Wraith, the Furling ship the Wraith stole will be passing close to Destiny's area of space very soon and it's their one and only chance of stopping them, the crystal Alisana interfaced with the ship will briefly boost Destiny's weapons and hopefully be enough to stop the Wraith.

"Couldn't you just use your funky powers to stop them?" asks Mitchell.

"He's got a point" says O'Neill.

"Our powers improve with age and mine are limited, I'm not old enough to use them fully yet." replies Alisana.

They're all standing around and waiting for the Wraith to enter sensor range, O'Neill is sitting in the captain chair as usual, while the others stand or sit on the floor of the bridge, they share stories about Sam and have a giggle and a joke remembering the good times they all had together, it lightens the mood and makes everyone feel a bit better.

"...or the time when she was stuck in that Genii mine with McKay, it must have driven her crazy." says Sheppard, having a good laugh.

"If I had a choice of either being chased by the Wraith or stuck in a room with McKay, I'd choose the Wraith." says Ronan.

After a lot of reminiscing laughter they gradually fall silent with each of them thinking about their own fond memories of Sam.

"She's the greatest person I've known, no matter what's happening around us she always managed to make us feel happy." says Alisana.

"She really does." says Mitchell.

"Indeed." says Teal'c.

* * *

A few minutes later the sensors pick up a ship on approach, they jump to their feet, Alisana sits in a chair at the front of the bridge, "They're here." she shouts, she activates the bridge window and it raises out of the hull allowing them to see outside, moving over to the weapons console she programs the weapons and activates Destiny's turrets which rise up from the hull all over Destiny.

As the Wraith ship approaches, Alisana sends power from the crystal to the engines which start to light up with a humming sound that gets louder and louder.

"What is that?" asks O'Neill.

"I'm creating a hyperspace pulse to disable their ship." replies Alisana.

When the engines fully charge she activates them, instead of sending the ship in to hyperspace it remains stationary and a pulse from the engines emanates outwards, the pulse hits the Furling ship which has just come in to range and it destabilises its drives causing it to drop out of hyperspace just ahead of the destiny.

"Hold on to something" shouts Alisana.

She activates the turrets, they all angle and turn towards the Furling ship and begin firing rapidly, they hit the ship repeatedly and once the Wraith realise what's happening they start moving their ship away and returning fire behind them, luckily Destiny's shields are holding as they continue to fire on each other.

The Furling ship starts moving out of range but they eventually manage to disable it and destroy its weapons system, unfortunately the turrets on Destiny weren't meant to be used for such rapid fire and have overheated, Destiny has shut them down automatically for safety reasons and locked out the controls.

"Finish them off." says Ronan.

"I can't, the weapons are offline." says Alisana.

They stand looking out of the window for a few minutes, watching the damaged Furling ship floating dead in space way out ahead of them, Alisana looks briefly at the others standing beside her, "Come on" she says, turning and running out of the bridge.

"Now what do we do?" asks O'Neill, as everyone enters the gate room.

Alisana stands at the console under the twisted stairs, "They could still fix the ship, without weapons we can't destroy it. We're going to have to go over there and finish the job." she says.

"How?" asks Sheppard.

"The Furling ship has a gate on it, I didn't know it had one until they entered sensor range." replies Alisana.

"Okay lets do this." says Ronan.

The gate dials up and a stable connection is made, "Okay. Are you sure you want to do this?" says Alisana.

"Lets go." says O'Neill.

Sheppard, Ronan, Mitchell, Teal'c and O'Neill ready their guns pointing them out in front of them, they stand in a line in front of the gate, after turning their heads and giving each other a ready nod, "Stay behind us" says O'Neill, and they walk through the event horizon.


	7. Goodbye

Thanks to Destiny's weapons they managed to stop and disable the Furling ship, but the weapons overheated and Destiny's safety protocols kicked in and disabled them preventing Alisana from finishing the job and destroying the ship.

Everyone gathered in to the gate room when Alisana came up with a plan, she told them she detected a gate on board the Furling ship and they could use it to get on board and kill the Wraith themselves, they all readied their weapons and when the gate activated they went through to fight the Wraith.

They exit the gate on the other end and slowly lower their guns in shock and disbelief, they were expecting to encounter hundreds of Wraith, instead they see men with guns in military uniform, a large staircase in front of them, and Woolsey looking over the balcony above, they're back on Atlantis.

"What the hell" says Ronan.

"What happened" says Sheppard.

O'Neill lets out a frustrated breath and looks at the floor, "Damn it" he says softly.

Alisana had lied to them, there never was a Stargate on the Furling ship, when Destiny's weapons went offline she knew there was only one way this was going to end, she also knew that her friends would fight by her side no matter what, even if that meant going up against hundreds of super strong Wraith in a fight they would probably lose they would have still stuck by her side, but she couldn't let them do that.

Knowing they would follow her no matter what, she couldn't just tell them she was sending them back to Atlantis because she knew they wouldn't go, so she told a lie, a lie to save their lives.

Teal'c stares at the gate, "Where is Alisana?" he asks.

"She's not coming" says Mitchell when he realises what's going on.

One of the S.O's radios starts to sound static and O'Neill rushes over and grabs the radio when he hears Alisana's voice.

"Alisana...what are you doing?" he asks.

"Sorry Jack." says Alisana.

"You tricked us." says O'Neill.

"I had too, it's the only way." says Alisana.

O'Neill walks over and looks at the still active gate, "No it's not, come through...we'll find another way." he says.

"This is how it has to be, I just want you all to be safe. You've all given me and shown me so much this past year, more than I could have ever imagined, you made my dreams come true. Thank you all." says Alisana.

Teal'c quickly walks over and grabs the radio, "Do not do this by yourself, Alisana, you are our friend, let us help you." he says.

"Sorry Teal'c." says Alisana.

"What are you going to do?" asks O'Neill.

"What I have to do." replies Alisana, "It was an honour being a part of your family, I love you all...thanks for the adventure." she says.

They all look deeply saddened knowing what she's about to do.

O'Neill raises the radio to his mouth and after a brief pause and hesitation, "The honour was ours." he says, he lowers his arm and looks at the floor with sadness.

The gate deactivates.

* * *

On Destiny, Alisana is in the gate room when she said her final goodbye to her friends, she too is saddened by what she must do, but it has to be done, after the gate deactivates she remains standing and looking at it for a few minutes with the odd tear running down her cheek.

She looks over her shoulder, "Give me a minute and then continue your course, thanks for the help." she says.

Alisana is familiar with the system on board Destiny and knows that it has an AI, it has in fact been monitoring and listening to them since they arrived and she's just given it an instruction, a beep is heard and the clock above the get room door lights up and turns red and begins counting down 60 seconds before Destiny will re-enter hyperspace and continue its original course.

"Well Alisana, this is it, going out with a bang." she says to herself.

She shuts her eyes and takes a few long breaths of air, then she quickly turns around and in that same instant she appears in a small room on board the Furling ship, she pushes a button next to the door and the door slides open and she steps out in to the corridor, she looks to her left and then as she looks to her right a Wraith lunges at her, she dodges its outstretched arms and punches it in the stomach and the face, after several punches she grabs it by the back of the head and slams its face in to the wall knocking it out.

As the Wraith falls to the floor unconscious, two more Wraith come around the corner and run towards her when they spot her and start firing stun blasts at her, she turns and runs in the opposite direction, running down the corridor she soon spots another Wraith in front of her, she runs at it and jumps in to the air screaming angrily and lands on top of it and pushes it to the floor, she slams her hand on to its chest and just like the Wraith she drains it of all its stolen Furling energy which increases her own.

She continues to run through the corridors for several minutes and fighting more and more Wraith, she continues to beat them down and dream them of their energy as she tears through them one by one, like the most magnificent acrobatics and martial arts expert you've ever seen she's running up the walls and twisting through the air beating every Wraith in her path, and she's consuming more energy than she can handle.

Eventually she ends up in a large hall with corridors all around her, as the massive amount of energy starts to take its toll, she hunches down on to the floor breathing heavily, her eyes start to glow like fire, she hears the footsteps of hundreds of Wraith approaching from every direction so begins channelling the energy within her.

"Goodbye" she whispers.

As the Wraith swarm in to the room and charge at her, she gets to her feet and after a very loud scream she tilts back her head and arches her back with her arms outstretched and a sphere of powerful energy rushes out of her and expands all through the ship like a fireball, the Wraith disappear as it hits them and within seconds explosions start erupting through the outer hull of the ship and it explodes sending a shock wave out in to space.

* * *

At the same time back on Atlantis, Keller is in the infirmary removing and disconnecting equipment in preparation to transport her body to the Daedalus when it arrives, she places a white sheet over Carters face and then walks away, she stops suddenly when she hears a rattling sound, turning around she sees Carters bed shaking slightly so she goes over to see what's happening.

Moments later, Carters body suddenly goes into convulsions, shaking like she's having a seizure, then tiny particles of yellow and orange light start flowing around her and her body slowly rises a few feet above the bed.

Keller goes over and grabs her radio, "Wool...Mr Woolsey" she says frantically.

"Yes Dr?" says Woolsey.

"You better get down here, it's Colonel Carter...something really strange is happening." says Keller.

"On our way Dr." says Woolsey.

O'Neill, Teal'c, Sheppard, Ronan, Teyla, Daniel, Mitchell and Vala immediately head for the infirmary, when they arrive the run through the door and are shocked at seeing Carter floating in the air and surrounded by a yellow glow.

"Jack, no." says Daniel, pulling back O'Neill when he tries to approach the bed.

They hear the sound of Alisana's voice gently echo in the room saying "Goodbye", then suddenly the energy around Carter flashes brightly and expands outwards like a shock wave and it knocks everyone in the infirmary off their feet, Carter's body stops moving and then falls back on to the bed bouncing slightly.

Everyone gets to their feet again and O'Neill runs over to the bed followed by everyone else.

"What happened?" asks O'Neill, looking at Keller.

Keller is as confused as they are, she shrugs her shoulders, "I..I..I have no idea." she says.

In that moment, everyone jumps when Carter suddenly takes in a very deep breath of air, she exhales and then breaths heavily catching her breathe, she opens her eyes and looks around rapidly not knowing what's going on.

"Oh my God" says Daniel.

"Sam." says O'Neill, leaning in and rubbing the top of her head.

Carter thrashes her arms around and then sits up and slides off the bed standing up and looking quite scared.

O'Neill grabs her arms to hold and steady her, "Sam, Sam...it's me Jack." he shouts.

Carter appears to calm down and then looks at him, "Jack" she says as she starts to get her bearings.

"Yeah it's me" says O'Neill with a smile.

After a moment she starts to recognise who everyone is and then puts her arms around O'Neill and holds him tightly and starts crying with a mixture of happiness and confusion, the others in the room share a smile of happiness that Carter is alive.

* * *

The Ancients said that bringing back the dead after such a long period of time was impossible, but it seems it's not that impossible after all, it appears that Alisana was able to do it, possibly due to the enormous amount of Furling energy she had flowing through her, no one has ever had that much power before, she sacrificed herself to save not just her people but her friend Samantha Carter as well.

Six days later SG-1 had returned to the SGC using the Stargate, the IOA wasn't very happy with the lies they were told and that their orders were disobeyed, SG-1 face a long debrief and someone will have to be punished for their actions.

Mr Woolsey was given a warning by the IOA for disobeying their orders, he's been allowed to remain as head of the Atlantis expedition but his actions will be closely monitored from now on and any big decisions will have to go through IOA approval first.

As Carter was officially dead for most of the mission she has nothing to answer for and was let off the hook, Mitchell, Daniel, Teal'c and Vala each received a warning for their actions and will now have to be debriefed by representatives of the IOA at the end of every mission, they also have to get their approval before going on missions in the future.

O'Neill requested that they be lenient on his team and told the IOA that they were just following his orders and any punishment forthcoming should be his and his alone, the IOA wanted to take the opportunity to remove O'Neill from the Stargate program for good, they've never been completely happy with the way he did things and this would be a great excuse to be rid of him.

However, the President and a few other world leaders would not stand for such an action, O'Neill has done a great job and is vital to the program so they fought his corner and used their influence to convinced the IOA that a less harsh punishment would be better, he's been stripped of his rank as Brigadier General and been demoted to Colonel, he's also been allowed to remain a member of SG-1.

O'Neill was disappointed at first when he was stripped of his rank, but in honesty to himself he never liked the job anyway, filling in paperwork and dealing with canteen supply issues was never his thing, he's happy to be a Colonel.

SG-1 are happy to have Sam back alive and well, but they're finding it difficult to come to terms with the loss of Alisana.

* * *

O'Neill is walking through the halls of the SGC when he gets to Alisana's quarters, the door is open and he looks inside.

"Sam" he says, seeing Carter sat on the end of the bed.

"Oh, hi Jack." replies Carter, wiping tears from her face, "How did it go with the IOA?" she asks.

O'Neill walks over and sits beside her on the bed, "Tell you later. What are you doing in here?" he says.

"I don't know really..I was kind of hoping she would be in here, you know" says Carter.

"Yeah...what's that?" says O'Neill, referring to something Carter is holding in her hands.

Carter passes it to him, "It's a picture we took a couple of months ago." she says.

It's a photo of SG-1 and Alisana all standing in the gate room, Walter brought a camera in to the base a few months ago and Alisana persuaded him to take one of them all together, Vala, Alisana and Carter are standing at the front, O'Neill, Mitchell, Daniel and Teal'c are standing behind and the inactive Stargate is in the background, Alisana is wearing a bright pink Onesie, O'Neill ordered her to stop wearing them on base but she never listened.

Carter and O'Neill look at the picture and share a laugh, "Who would have thought Teal'c would be so photogenic" says O'Neill.

"She saved my life, Jack." says Carter, rubbing her finger over the image of Alisana in the photo.

"I know." replies O'Neill.

"She was so young and so beautiful, with so much to live for. I can't believe she's gone." says Carter, sobbing.

O'Neill puts his arm around her, "Come here." he says, "She'll never be forgotten, I promise you that."

Soon after SG-1 returned to Earth, Atlantis started receiving reports of crashed and abandoned Wraith ships all over the Pegasus galaxy, in fact no one has even seen nor encountered a single Wraith in the last couple weeks, it's as if they all just vanished in to thin air.

**The End...**

* * *

**A/N:** Hope you enjoyed this story (brought a tear to my eye while writing some of it) and please look out for my next one when "The Journey" continues :)


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